A Heart And Hearth Within Me

Lonesome Pine Fiddlers: Windy Mountain

This is the coolest day
thus far, reminding me
that I have only
a half-thick coat on.
The easterly wind
comes cold into my ear,
as yet unused to it.
Yet this first
decided coolness
--not to say wintriness--
is not only bracing
but exhilarating
and concentrating
to our forces.
So much the more
I have a hearth
and heart within me.
We step more briskly,
and brace ourselves
against the winter.
--Henry David Thoreau
journal entry for
October 25, 1858